In many ways, we live in a more confusing time than ever before. “Deep fakes” are a great example of this. All it takes is a good computer and some editing skills and someone can make it look like anyone is saying or doing just about anything.
And it gets even worse when politics are involved. While Donald Trump turned “fake news” into a common retort, we must now question whether certain controversial political videos are even real or not.
One recent video alleges to show proof that Joe Biden is basically a puppet that is subservient to Nancy Pelosi. But where did this video come from? Is it even real? And what does this mean for the presidency?
Keep reading to discover the truth of the matter!
What is the original video?
What is the original Joe Biden video that has the internet in such a tizzy?
The original video has a clip of Joe Biden from the House Democratic Caucus’ 2021 Issues Conference in March. We can see and hear Joe Biden saying “I’m happy to take questions if that’s what I’m supposed to do, Nance, whatever you want me to do.” We see Nancy Pelosi’s image disappear and then a voice that sounds like Pelosi says “Am I on? No, we don’t want him to talk.”
This video was uploaded to Twitter and went viral when it was retweeted by Hollywood actor James Wood from a user called @lonewolfy777. A watermark on the clip shows the Twitter handle @Michael_Clive. You can view the video below:
When you first watch the video, there do not appear to be any obvious signs of an edit. And that brings us back to the man question: is this video fake or not?
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Is the video fake or not?
To cut to the chase, the video as presented is, indeed, a fake. That is because Nancy Pelosi never said the infamous “we don’t want him to talk” in reference to Joe Biden or anything else. Full video from the event reveals no disparaging audio from Pelosi, and the Associated Press confirmed this.
Instead, a man named Michael Clive simply impersonated Nancy Pelosi’s voice and edited his audio into the video. But, interestingly, Clive’s original video was clearly marked as satire before an edited video clip made the rounds on Twitter.
Here’s how the confusion happened.
The man behind the video speaks
Michael Clive is a professional voice actor who has acted in major shows such as The Simpsons. These days, Clive periodically contributes his talents to the Trump Still Speaks Youtube channel. However, the original video that he uploaded to Youtube had a description that clearly read as follows: “This is Conservative Satire and Production, not for the timid or Free speech haters. America’s Great Impressionist & Character Specialist. Watch Michael Clive’s New Demo. It’ll blow your mind!”
If that’s not enough, the original video has this comment pinned at the top: “**This is Political Satire ** Michael Clive is an American Actor, Comedian & Voice Artist with 30+ years’ work from The Simpsons to The Stern Show. This more Conservative humor may seem odd because the media has only promoted Democrat/Leftist production/humor from Leftist performers/comedians/singers for decades.”
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Manipulated media
So, what led to the confusion?
In an interview with Newsweek, Clive admitted, “Yes, that’s me, imitating Nancy Pelosi but that Twitter version has been edited. The original is labeled satire at the end and in the YouTube description.”
The confusion came from the fact that those who uploaded it to Twitter removed any indicators of satire. After James Wood retweeted it, many who encountered the clip had no way of knowing whether it was real or not.
Twitter has since added a “manipulated media” label to the tweet to indicate that the disparaging Pelosi audio was faked.
Mystery solved!